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THE 



LESSONS OF THE LIFE 



OF 



REV. ALFRED GRIFFITH. 



A MEMORIAL SERMON. 



PREACHED IN THE M. E. CHURCH, ALEXANDRIA, VA, 



Sabbath, April SO, 787/. 



BY KEY. W. F. HE MEN WAY: A. M. 



o 



THE 



LESSONS OF THE LIFE 



OF 



REV. ALFRED GRIFFITH, 

A MEMORIAL SERMON, 

PREACHED IN THE M, E. CHURCH, ALEXANDRIA, VA, 

Sabbath y April 30, 7871. 

BY REV. W. F. HEMENWAY, A. M. 



ALEXANDRIA. VA. 

PRINTED AT THE GAZETTE BOOK AND JOB PRINTING OFFICE. 

1871, 



^ V5\ 



A MEMORIAL SERMON. 



"He being dead yet speaketh." — Heb. xi. 4. 

The ripened fruit falls not untimely. Rich and golden 
has been the fruitage of Methodism. In every era of her 
history has the Methodist Church rejoiced in ripened fruit 
that falling, has been garnered in Heaven, the memory of 
which will be fragrant with lessons of holy living through 
all time. 

Men they were, having grand conceptions of life, who 
wrought those conceptions into acts which will forever speak 
forth their praise. 

No names in all the history of the church shine with 
brighter or with purer lustre, than do those of the early 
heroes of our own loved Methodism. Nor has the glory of 
the former day grown dim in later years. 

We are met this morning to commemorate the life and 
virtues of one whose heroism and whose exalted character, 
though not the kind that poets mostly sing, yet were a wor- 
thy theme for earth's most gifted songsters. 

It is not my purpose to attempt any panegyric of Rev. 
ALFRED GRIFFITH. He needs none. 

A life whose broad base was an unswerving fealty to the 
Gospel of our Lord Jesus ; whose towering majesty was 
reared in mighty deeds through heavenly inspiration ; whose 
summit grandeur stood out in clear cut lines, far above the 
heights the world delights to climb, needs not the praise of 
feeble words to give it greatness. It is by association with 
such a life that words themselves are winged and become im- 
mortal. 



* 



4 

Nor do I purpose to come and lay an offering upon his 
tomb. There will be others, pilgrims to this shrine, who in 
fitter words than I can speak will bring their wealth of poesy, 
and their tribute of eloquence and wreath his memory with 
garlands. It is mine this morning to go over his ministerial 
pathway of more than sixty-six years and gather up the 
lessons of his life, a string of pearls, and show them here. 

Rev. Alfred Griffith was born in Montgomery Co., Md., 
March 16th, 1783. He was converted under the ministry of 
Rev. John Potts, in 1801, during a revival of religion, which 
began on Montgomery circuit while Rev. Wilson Lee was 
stationed there. He was received into the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church by Rev. David Stevens, and soon thereafter 
was appointed a class leader. 

His first sermon was delivered under the following circum- 
stances. With other people of his neighborhood he had 
gathered to listen to a sermon to be preached by a certain 
Local Preacher. For some reason the expected preacher did 
not appear, and after waiting for some time some of the 
older brethren went to Mr. Griffith and requested him to 
conduct the services and preach to the people. He refused 
to do this, pleading his youth, his ignorance, his timidity , 
and his want of a Divine call, as reasons why he should be 
excused. His brethren persistently urging him not to per- 
mit the congregation to disperse without an exhortation, he 
at length went alone to the forest, which was near, to ask 
of God his duty. After some time spent there in fervent 
supplication he returned to the house, and immediately en- 
tered the pulpit. What transpired there he was never able 
to recall. He only had a confused memory that the power 
of the Holy Ghost came upon him, and that the authority of 
his ministry was attested by mingled groans and tears, and 
cries for mercy, and loud shouts and halleluiahs. 



• 



5 

At a quarterly meeting held soon after this occurrence, 
the Presiding Elder, Rev. Enoch George, afterward Bishop 
George of blessed memory, hearing an account of this re- 
markable scene, wrote for Mr. Griffith a license to preach, 
and left it with the preacher in charge of the circuit. He, 
approaching Mr. Griffith one day, handed the paper to him, 
folded. As soon as he had opened and read the paper he 
was so agitated that he let it fall. The preacher picking it 
up and handing it again to him warned him against slight- 
ing a call from God. 

At a quarterly Conference just prior to the Conference 
held in Baltimore in 1806, his pastor, Rev. Gideon Draper, 
presented his name to the Elder for recommendation for 
admission on trial in the travelling connection. This it 
seems was entirely unexpected by Mr. Griffith, for he imme- 
diately arose and began to plead a variety of reasons why 
he could not undertake so responsible a life work. Mr. 
Draper was equal to the emergency. Springing to his feet 
he cried out "Flash in the pan if you dare Brother Griffith. 
I tell you you must preach or God will kill you." So 
Enoch George recommended him, and he was received on 
trial in the Baltimore Conference March 16th, 1806, being, 
at that time just twenty-three years of age. 

At that Conference he was appointed to the Wyoming 
Circuit, a vast tract of unexplored country more than three 
hundred miles in extent, in whose bounds are now found 
parts of six Annual Conferences. It is not our purpose, nor 
is there time on the present occasion to follow him in detail 
and at large through this and the subsequent fields of his 
ministerial labor. The next year, 1807, he was appointed to 
Berkley; in 1808, to Baltimore Circuit; in 1809, to Severn; 
in 1810, to Calvert. In 1811 he was appointed to Montgo- 
mery Circuit, his former home, to which he was returned the 
second year, a thing that in those days of Methodism was 



6 

rarely known. During his two years of labor here he was 
married. In 1813 he was appointed to Annapolis, to which 
he was in after years twice returned, viz : in 1823 — 24 and 
1850 — 51. In 1814 he was appointed to Fell's JPoint ; in 
1815, and again in '36 and '37, to City Station. In 1816 
— 17 he was appointed to this place (Alexandria) and 
again in 1843 — 44. At this point, for want of a better op- 
portunity let me advert to some features of his ministry 
during his first appointment to Alexandria. The results of 
those two years are known by the records of the church, 
which are still preserved at the parsonage. And as I read 
them carefully, I could almost see Mr. Griffith, as he moved 
among the people here, an evangel of salvation to scores of 
souls. In the carefully kept record of the church member- 
ship, in his own hand writing, there is preserved the history 
of his ministry. It seems from the record that he preached 
in Alexandria every other sabbath. For every two weeks 
there are recorded accessions to the church, varying in num- 
ber from five to twenty persons. And while I read, I could 
but recall those glorious days when in answer to the stirring 
appeals of Alfred Griffith, in this same old church, moved 
by the power of the Holy Ghost, sinners came at every ser- 
vice flocking to this same altar, seeking the Lord Jesus, 
And the picture of imagination showed me those same sin- 
ners rejoicing in their new found love, while the happy 
preacher made these walls ring again and again with his glad 
halleluiahs and shouts of victory. 

my brethren, has the power of those days passed en- 
tirely away from the church ? Can we no longer preach in 
these walls, hallowed by such glorious memories, and expect 
to see the fruit of our labors ? Was it the privilege alone 
of our fathers to sow the seed and then immediately thrust 
in the sickle and reap ; while we their sons must be content 
to wait the slow moving of years, before the harvest of our 



7 

seeding may be gathered in ? No, I believe the God of 
Alfred Griffith is the same God to-day; that the God of our 
fathers, is the God of their sons ; and if we will come to 
him in the same faith, if we will go out to reap as well as to 
scatter seed, we too, as they did, may come again at every 
service, bringing our sheaves with us. may the spirit of 
the former day fall upon us all, people and preacher, that 
our labor for souls may be blessed to this city as were those 
labors in 181(3—17! 

In 1818 — 19 he was appointed to Fairfax Circuit; in '20 
and '21, 10 Frederick Circuit; in '22 to Harford ; in '25 and 
'26, to Carlisle. He was then compelled by providential cir- 
cumstances to cease from traveling, and for four years held 
the relation of a Supernumerary. 

In 1831 he returned to the regular work, and was station- 
ed at Liberty. In 1832 he was appointed Presiding Elder 
of Baltimore District, where he was continued four years. 
In 1838 ho was appointed to Carlisle District ; in '39 and 
thereafter for three years he was Presiding Elder on North 
Baltimore District; in '42 he was appointed to North Balti- 
more; in '45. to Georgtown ; in '46, to Carlisle District where 
he served the four following years. In 1852-53 he was ap- 
pointed to Summerfield, and in '54-55, to Ryland Chapel, 
Washington, where he closed his effective and successful 
ministry of a half centurv. For five years thereafter he held 
a supernumerary relation, and from thence to his death a 
superanuate relation to the Baltimore Conference. Such is 
the record of his ministerial life. He served the church in 
other important places. Trusts of the greatest importance 
were unhesitatingly committed to his hands. As a delegate 
to the General Conference in 1816-20-32-36-40-44 down 
even till 1860, as trustee of colleges, and in other ways his 
brethren honored his ability with their full confidence. 



8 



This life so full of great deeds, so eloquent in its lessons, 
closed upon earth, April 15, 1871. 

And ki being dead, he yet speaketh." 

The span of a lifetime neither measures the power of a 
life, nor ends the lessons of a life. The death which gives 
the body to corruption, has no power over the life which is 
past. That, with all its lessons, with its honors or its crimes, 
rolls on, a power forever. It is no longer the exclusive pro- 
perty of a single person, it has become the heritage of the 
world. It may have been a life born to exclusive privileges, 
a life endowed with peculiar and rare talents. It may be 
that for it especially the sun has shone, the rains have fallen, 
and the ground yielded her increase. For it, both earth 
and ocean, may have been alive with agencies. For it, rank 
and power and influence may have combined to weave a royal 
garb. Yet the success* of that life, the results of those 
agencies, the lessons of that royal living, become the common 
inheritance of all men. Every man is a part of earth's 
grand human system, and whether he be royal sun or only 
some plebian meteorite, he can by no choice and power of 
of his own detach himself from that system. He is bound 
to it by bonds he cannot break, and in turn has over the 
other parts of the same system the same kind of power as 
that to which he himself yields. Every man then is a foun- 
tain of influence, either good or bad, conservative or destruc- 
tive. Whether he will or not, he is a power entering into 
and shaping the course of the life of others. 

And this power is not measured by this life's extent. In 
this way he is immortal. His language, his habits, his 
thoughts live on, coloring the ideas, impressing the char- 
acter, influencing the life of others forever, 

He may not have intended to do all this. He may have 
made himself the sole object of his living. All his plans, 



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all his aspirations may have revolved around himself. He 
may have made it the study of his whole life to make all 
things converge to himself ; reaching out his hands, grasping 
all of wealth he could control, all of honor he could reach, 
all of power that he could gain, to bring them all and place 
them as sacrifices upon the altar of his selfishness; yet the 
very energy he expended on himself gave wings to his in- 
fluence, and became a power to mould the life of others. 

If this be true of one whose only idea of living was to 
live for himself alone, much more is- it true of him who lived 
to disperse his benefits. Though the world may be poorer 
by the death of such an one, yet it has an inestimable trea- 
sure in his life. 

Of such a character was the life of Rev. Alfred Griffith. 
His was a life of beneficence. The vigor of his manhood 
was poured out for the world, the greatness of his endow- 
ments was used for men. 

He took all the circumstances of his life, all the gifts of 
Providence, all the endowments of his nature, and training 
them up, turned them for the welfare of men. And though 
in the eclipse of his life there is a public calamity, yet along 
his life's way, as along the pathway of one of heaven's me- 
teors, there is left a light beside which the lives of heroes 
and warriors glimmer but faintly. 

A complete representation of Mr. Griffith is found only in 
his character as a Methodist Minister. This is the focal 
point of his whole life. The point to which he made all 
things converge, and from which as from a luminous centre 
there radiated a light which bathed all his life with a glory. 

This being the centre of his life, it is from this point we 
must learn the lessons of his living. From any other 
place of observation we shall see only a chaotic maze of per- 
plexity and doubt ; but from this point we may behold his 



10 

life a towering mountain of successful living, down whose 
sides run rivers of healthful instruction. 

The primal idea of his life, was living for Christ. This 
is the only reasonable centre of a life. We can never com- 
prehend christian experience, or our duties rightly till we 
project the centre of our life from ourselves and fix it in 
God. The philosophy of our life must be " I live, yet not 
I but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the 
flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God." 

In the earlier ages of the christian era Ptolemy, an Egypt- 
ian astronomer, taught that the earth was the centre of the 
universe, and that the sun, moon and stars all moved in order 
around it, but in after years when Copernicus revived the 
ancient theory of Pythagoras and confirmed its truth by 
mathematical demonstration, the earth retiring from her 
proud position as the unmoved center, became a humble 
satellite to wait upon the sun. So worldly wisdom fixes 
man as central, but when the Trospel brings in its u sublime 
calculus of faith " the centre is removed from man to God, 
and the life no longer a hopeless confusion moves on, blend- 
ing in a harmonious unity all that before seemed so irrecon- 
cilable and contradictory. 

How sublime is that character whose greatness is in har- 
mony with God. How sovereign is that life which knows 
no fear but the fear of God, no impulse but the love of Jesus, 
and no inspiration but the Master's will. His life receiving its 
motion from the hands of Omnipotence, stops not at trials 
and obstacles over which others stumble, but moves easily 
and evenly over them all. 

His faith quickened by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 
falters not at peril, or sacrifice, or suffering. His heart is 
fixed, trusting in God. Trusting in God, he moves right on. 
Compelled to wander in the desert, pillowing his head upon 
a stone, trusting in God, he lies down to slumber and awakens 



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in the morning to tell of his angel visitors. Betrayed by 
his brethren's hatred and sold to wandering Midianites, 
trusting in God, he bravely treads his wearv pathway through 
Egypt's slavery and Egypt's dungeons, and finds at last his 
reward on Egypt's throne. 

Persecuted for righteousness he must renounce his God 
and bow to the golden image or the fiery furnace, heated 
seven times hotter than it was wont, will test his faith. 
Trusting in God to deliver, he shrinks not from the 
trial but comes forth unharmed, to tell the astonished per- 
secutors of angel deliverance. Living for Jesus ! 0. 
my brother is this your life? Have you discovered here 
the secret of successful living? This is the key that 
unlocks the secret of Alfred Griffith's success. He lived 
for Jesus. He made Christ's interests the test by whicn 
he tried everything. For Jesus he poured out the vigor 
of his life ; for Jesus he gave the treasure of his in- 
tellect. By the rule of Jesus' interests he solved the most 
intricate problems of christian casuistry. Hence where 
others were doubtful, he felt sure. Where others were fear- 
ing, he was bold. Where others were distrustful, he was 
confident. Where others consulted expediency, he, Christ's 
interests. So he gave himself fully for Jesus. His circuit 
may stretch hundreds of miles into the unexplored wilder- 
ness, he falters not, but cheerfully goes to his work. It 
may take him for months away from his home ; may expose 
him to the perils of fierce wild beasts and yet fiercer savages ; 
may try his very soul within him ; yet none of these things 
moved him, neither counted he his life dear unto himself so 
that he might finish his course with joy and the ministry 
which he had received of the Lord Jesus. 

0, are you living for Jesus? You are making a fortune. 
Is it that you may do good? You are gaining honor. Is 
it that you may be more useful? Or did you come with the 



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crowd crying "Hosannato the Son of David/' saying "Lord 
I will follow thee whither thou goest," and when Jesus re- 
plied, kk The foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, 
but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head; Go 
sell that thou hast, and give to the poor and come take up 
thy cross and follow me," did you cowardly steal away too 
poor in true christian manhood to live for Jesus alone ? 

Living for Jesus only, Mr. Griffith was a faithful preacher 
of the Word of God. He was faithful in his preparation for 
Sunday services. He sought so far as he was able for a gen- 
eral acquaintance with knowledge. In history — especially 
church history — he was pre-eminent. It was a general sub- 
ject of remark that he was a walking encyclopedia of facts 
and dates. So noted was he for his accurate memory, that 
his brethren were accustomed to take his statement of fact or 
date, unquestioned. And all his knowledge was not, as is too 
often the case in such minds, a mass of lumber useless to him 
for any general work. It was not crude material with which 
he had gorged himself, that he possessed, but it was know- 
ledge perfectly digested, that had passed through all the 
stages of the transforming process till it had become a part 
of the muscle, bone, sinew and nerve of the mental man. 

So his knowledge was all made available for the work of 
a minister of the Gospel. He was faithful to the truth. 
It was his constant endeavor to know "what is truth." He 
asked not, what will please the people, or what will make a 
sensation, or what will secure applause, but what is God's 
message. And finding this, he had supreme faith in it. It 
mattered but little to him how others might treat what he 
held as the truth. The whole world beside might disregard 
its force. According to the wisdom of this world it might 
look like foolishness. Men might heap contumely and re- 
proach upon it. If he believed it to be the truth he would 
maintain it forever. He believed that God would honor his 



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truth, and though He might permit it to rest awhile under 
scorn and reproach, the day of revealing would come, when 
God would rescue it from its reproach. And he believed 
that he who had clung to that truth in the day of its dis- 
honor would rise with it and share in its honor in the day of 
its exaltation. 

He was a humble Minister. He shrank from the adula- 
tion of the world. His faith was never hindered by seeking 
honor of men. Among the grandest acts of his life, nay 
among the grandest acts of the world's history do I rank 
the humility with which he received his call to preach the 
Gospel. 

It seems as if history was repeating itself. And I see 
Moses standing again on rocky Horeb. Again the naming 
bush proclaims the present God. Again Jehovah commis- 
sions his servant to be a leader. Again the Prophet pleads 
his want of fitness, and pleads for power till armed with the 
all-compelling rod, he goes to his work, God's strangely 
favored agent. 

So Alfred Griffith found his Horeb. So called was he to 
work for God. So plead he his want of fitness, till clothed 
upon by power divine, he too grasped his rod of power, — the 
story of the Cross, — and went out a leader of the Hosts of 
Israel. But not like Moses was he in his death. Moses 
must climb on Pisgah's top and only see his Canaan, while 
Alfred Griffith, like another Joshua, crosses between the 
parted waters of the Jordan and enters the Canaan to which 
he journeyed. 

As a preacher his sermons were rich in thought. Few 
persons excelled him in the power of compact thought. He 
reasoned with mathematical exactness. Possessing sufficient 
imagination to fully equip the faculty of comparison he was 
however, far from possessing a poetical organization. His 



14 



conclusions were rather the decisive results of a calm logi- 
cal inquiry, than the confident decisions of a sibylline oracle. 

His habits of life show the reason for this precision of 
thought. He wrote but little. Hence his premises, his ar- 
gument, and his conclusion all stood out in his mind in clear- 
est plainness. Hence his thoughts were rendered with 
laconic brevity and axiomatic force. Hence his speeches 
were never long, and always pertinent and statesmanlike. 

His sermons so filled with thought were addressed to the 
thoughtful. The educated minds, the thinkers of his con- 
gregations, more than others appreciated his sermons. One 
of the finest tributes ever paid to human eloquence was 
paid to Rev. Alfred Griffith by Frank Key, the gifted 
author of the "Star Spangled Banner," who enjoyed the 
ministry of Mr. Griffith while he was stationed in Annapolis. 

Yet it is but just to say his efforts were very unequal. He 
had not the gift that some men possess of making airy 
nothings of interest to his congregations, hence when the 
machinery of his mental powers flagged he was dry and un- 
interesting. There were other times when he rose as far 
above the level of his ordinary self as occasionally he fell 
below it, times when he became the peer of any pulpit 
orator, when entranced by his eloquence the listening con- 
gregation hung upon his words. While, from all the sources 
of information I couid reach, I was trying to make up my 
estimate of the source of this great man's power in the pul- 
pit; I remarked to one who all his lifetime had known Mr. 
Griffith intimately, that I had not yet discovered any trace 
of what is popularly called magnetism in a public speaker, in 
Mr. Griffith, and that I had about decided to attribute the 
power of his pulpit ministrations, so far as it resided in him- 
self merely, to the sheer force of his mental powers. 

" That is in the main correct of his pulpit efforts " replied 
he, "yet on a few occasions I have seen him develope a mag- 



15 



netism equal to that displayed by the most eloquent man I 
ever heard." He had the happy faculty of equalling the 
demands of the occasion. At those times which required 
great effort he rose superior to himself. Under the pressure 
of a great demand he never failed to equal expectation. At 
the laying of the corner stone of Waugh Chapel, in Wash- 
ington, some eloquent man of large renown had been secured 
to preach the sermon, while upon Mr. Griffith was laid the 
task of detaining the crowd in the open lot and raising a 
collection. As soon as the sermon was finished the congre- 
gation began to disperse. By relating in his own inimitable 
style the following incident he not only arrested the steps of 
the retiring congregation, but actually seated them again, 
and raised from them a large collection for the contemplated 
church. 

In 1791 Ezekiel Cooper was appointed to Alexandria. 
There being no church there he began to look about for aid 
to purchase a lot and build one. Among the members of 
the church there was a Bernard Bryan who coming to Alex- 
andria had established himself in business in a little cabin 
near the wharf. He had managed by patient industry and 
close economy to save five French crowns. To him Mr. 
Cooper first opened the project of building the church, and 
so enlisted was Mr. Bryan, immediately, that he offered to 
give one of the five crowns that he had saved. He went 
into the loft of his cabin, took from his leathen bag a single 
crown and when part way down the ladder stopped and be- 
gan to talk to himself, as follows : " Now Bryan you can 
spare another crown as well as not, why not give it." No 
sooner said than done, and he clambered back into the loft, 
took out another crown and began again to descend the lad- 
der. Before he reached the floor he stopped again, and after 
further consideration, concluded that in so important a work 
he ought to give God a full half of his crowns and retracing 



16 



his steps took the third crown and began again to descend. 
But the spirit of giving was upon him, and saying that a 
single crown would be enough for him, he went back and 
taking the fourth crown again descended, When on the 
middle of the ladder he again paused. The work was a 
great one. God's people were few in number and poor. He 
was in no immediate need and saying " God is pledged to 
keep me," he turned back, took the fifth and last crown and 
bringing them all, gave them into the astonished preacher's 
hands. That was the way Bernard Bryan gave all his crowns 
for the Lord, said Mr. Griffith in concluding. " And Jesus 
has given him an eternal crown, Glory to God, " shouted 
Bishop Waugh, who was on the platform at the time. 

Such was the anecdote through which Mr. Griffith wielded 
such marvellous power that day. 

Another instance of this wonderful power of his, will suf- 
fice. He used to tell in his own peculiar style how once Mr. 
Asbury appointed Mr. Snethen to preach at eleven o'clock, 
and himself at three o'clock on Sabbath, at a certain camp- 
meeting. Said Mr. Griffith "it was no child's play to preach 
after Nicholas Snethen, and I made as full a preparation for 
preaching at the appointed time as I was able to make. At 
eleven o'clock we were all in the stand waiting for Mr. 
Snethen when a messenger came bringing me a note from 
Mr. S., saying he was unable to preach and I must preach 
in his place and he would take my place at three o'clock. 
There was no way of escaping, and so I went at it, and 
when I had finished I reckon if ever I preached a great 
sermon that was it." It is said that of the thousands who 
had gathered there that morning, but few ever knew that 
Mr. Griffith had preached. So well did he acquit himself 
that he measured up to the standard of Mr. Snethen, and 
the congregation were fully persuaded they had been lis- 
tening to that great orator, whom Asbury named his " sil- 



17 



ver trumpet," Such are samples of many like instances 
of his power. When the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, 
it was as if an angel had touched his lips with fire, and his 
words glowed with the light and burned with the heat of 
living coals. 

Mr. Griffith was a man of progress. He was not in any 
way allied to a stereotyped antiquity. He loved the past for 
its heroism, its self-denial and its inspiration to great deeds ; 
yet with his eye turned toward the future he was fond of 
climbing historic Alleghanies and bending his ear, listening 
to the tramp of coming millions stepping to the music of 
Methodism. 

Yet he believed not in a progress that unsettles the past. 
But a progress that was real, a progress that was logical, a 
progress that claimed China for Jesus, though General Con- 
ferences and Missionary Boards stood in the way, he heartily 
believed in. 

And right cheerily did he welcome every movement for- 
ward that was for the good of the whole church. 

In the movement of 1824 that resulted in the unhappy 
separation of '28 and '30 he was enlisted, till he saw the 
seed of coming evil to the church. He appreciated the good 
in that movement and favored it, till it was made the occa- 
sion of harm to the church, then he threw his whole weight 
against it. 

He believed in an educated church and ministry. Method- 
ism, born in a Univeasity and trained by a scholar, in its 
early days in this country, had neither schools for its children, 
nor educated men for its ministry. He saw a stable church 
could rest only on an instructed understanding. He felt that 
the great want of the church was educated men. She had 
them not, there was no source of supply; the only way was 
to make them, and he became an enthusiastic friend of 
schools and colleges. 



.18 

The spirit of progress kept hi in ever young. He was to 
the last allied in sympathy to his brethren. Even after the 
darkness of death had shadowed his understanding, his sym- 
pathy and love for his brethren remained to the last. So 
long as he was able to go, he was present at every session of 
his Conference, and after increasing infirmities made it 
impossible to visit his brethren at the yearly convocation, he 
never omitted to write to the Conference a letter filled with 
richest gems of wisdom. To the very last hekept step to the 
throbbing heartbeat of a moving world. To know him best 
it was necessary to meet him in the social circle. 

If in other places he was the peer of any, here he was 
king of all. Very fluent, he talked much, but always well. 
He never marred the fireside cheer with gloomy face. Cheerful 
without levity, easy and never coarse, he never degraded the 
minister into the trifler. His heart was full of noble, gener- 
ous impulses and affectionate sympathy. He wept with the 
sorrowing and rejoiced with the glad. 

He was the Christian Patriot. During the war of 
1812 he was stationed at Annapolis and while there the 
city was threatened with an attack from the British ves- 
sels of war. Mr. Griffith taking his shovel and wheelbarrow 
worked on the fortifications till the city was placed beyond 
the reach of danger. Afterwards he provided himself with 
a musket, and declared himself ready to defend his country 
with his life. Though in after weeks he regretted the fervor 
into which his patriotism betrayed him, yet to the very end 
of his life he was a devoted lover of his country. If no- 
where else in all his life he showed enthusiasm, he did in this, 
his love for the old flag. 

He was a devoted Methodist. He ; believed in Methodist 
doctrine and discipline with all his heart. He watched the 
increase of Methodism, till in America, its membership had 
grown from 73,800 to more than 2,800,000. In nothing did 



19 



he more rejoice than in the triumphs of Methodism. In 
nothing was he pained more than in those movements which 
would bring harm to the church. 

My brethren let us, this day, renew our love for the old 
church. Here, in this church, whose walls have resounded 
to the voices of the older heroes of Methodism, on this occa- 
sion may our love for the church of our fathers, be kindled 
anew. I am no bigot. I do not deny fellowship to any de- 
nomination. If a man has learned to love the Lord Jesus, 
I care not in what school he has learned to love him, whether 
it be in a Baptist, Presbyterian or Methodist school. Bui 
converted under a Methodist ministry, trained by Methodist 
discipline, nurtured by Methodist sympathy, it is meet that 
warm gushing love should swell our hearts for the church of 
our fathers. 

Such was Alfred Griffith, as I have learned of him. "The 
life is with you, the man is gone. We look over the list 
of our early heroes and his place is vacant. Here we say 
" he has gone," but up yonder they say " he has come." From 
among the grand army that beleagured Paris, has gone the 
General that directed all its motions, but at home in the 
capital, Berlin, the welcoming crowds shout "the hero Von 
Moltke has come." So up yonder they crowd around the old 
hero, the friends that have been long waiting, a Guest, 
Bishop George, Bishop Emory, a Rozel, a Davis, a host who 
have gone on before, and heaven ere now, has rang with their 
shouts of welcome. 

He is gone, but the lessons of his life are with you. It is 
not needed that I should further point their moral. They 
are traits of character that speak in no mistakable terms 
their own lessons; and through them — through that Devoted- 
ness to Jesus, through his Earnest Ministry, through his 
Spirit of Progress, through his Christian Patriotism, through 
his Love for Met'hodism. " He being dead, yet speaketh." 



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